The WOW Report’s Best Dressed 2011

We aren’t ones to gush over Michelle Obama’s sleeveless blouses. There will be no peaons to Pippa Middleton here. We don’t think cutting edge fashion begins and ends with Lady Gaga. And while we sometimes rhapsodize over Daphne Guinness, she’s not on our 2011 Best Dressed List because, frankly, she’s a little overexposed, and we find her Haute Goth getups a wee bit predictable. Mix it up, girl.

Instead, we’re honoring those individuals who truly take it to the edge of fashion… the rule-breakers, style-makers, and no-hostage-takers who make us sit up and take notice. Celebrities, sublebrities, and celebutantes who live without stylists, without fear, and are without QUESTION the most interesting people in pop culture.

Below, we celebrate the STAUNCH individuals whose personalities ACTUALLY INFORM their look – can you IMAGINE? – and the style icons who make us question the very nature of style. It’s about the semiotics of clothing as costume, as emotional armor, as socio-political statement that gets our juices running. Now, sit back, relax, grab yourself a nice cup of absinthe, and BEHOLD! the men and women of the WOW BEST DRESSED LIST!